The present disclosure relates generally to gloves used for golfing. In particular, gloves adapted to reduce the tension of a user's grip on a golf club are described.
Golfing is a multi-million dollar industry. Many see golf as a luxury sport where appearances are often very important. For those entering the sport, tools that serve to improve their overall golf game would be extremely desirable. There are currently golf gloves on the market that claim to help golfers improve their grip, but many fall short.
Known golf gloves are not entirely satisfactory because they fail to help golfers grip a club properly. Gripping a golf club with reduced tension is recognized as a way to improve one's golf swing and thereby improve one's golf game for the purpose of allowing the golfer to have a tension-free grip of a golf club. For example, existing golf game improvement gloves that provide golfer with gripping guidance wrap around the golfer's entire hand and places excessive pressure on the wearer's hand.
Furthermore, other short-comings of current golf gloves on the market that claim to improve the wearer's golf game include visibility and durability. For instance, current golf gloves for improving one's golf game are often extremely obvious. These golf gloves often include straps that that look like bandages that wrap around the golfer's hand. These bandaging straps are highly visible and embarrassing to use, especially on the golf course.
In addition, these bandage-type mechanisms on a golf glove are clumsy to adjust during an actual game making it even more apparent that the wearer is using a training tool. Furthermore, golf game improving gloves using a bandage type mechanism can easily become stretched out and misshaped over a short period of time.
The combination of these current golf gloves being highly visible and difficult to use often ultimately deters the wearer from continuing to use them. Even when a wearer sticks with using these bandage cover type systems, the bandage covers become ineffective over a short period of time because conventional bandage-type straps are not sufficiently durable.
Thus, there exists a need for golf game improvement gloves that improve upon and advance the design of known golf gloves. Examples of new and useful golf gloves relevant to the needs existing in the field are discussed below.
Examples of references relevant to golf gloves that aid to improve golf swing include: U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,374; U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,120; U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,122; U.S. Pat. No. 5,855,022; U.S. Pat. No. 7,058,984; U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,269; U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,374; U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,120; and U.S. Pat. No. 7,051,377. The complete disclosures of the above patent filings are herein incorporated by reference for all purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,374 to Briggs discloses a seventeen inch strap, which is wrapped 360 degrees around the entire hand and club unit. The strap is fastened back to the top with a hook and loop fastener. As designed, the strapping device resembles a mummy wrapping, which makes the device impractical to use on a golf course and questionable for use anywhere but the golfer's own backyard. Additionally, the design actually puts unnatural pressure on the hand and the golf club making it near impossible to keep the user's wrists natural, relaxed, and soft, and thus adversely affects the required flexing of the wrists during the golf swing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,120 to Myers discloses a golf glove that utilizes a hook and loop strap placed around the outside of the last two fingers of the left hand. The strap is holding the golf club adapted to better secure the fingers on the golf club to enhance the golf grip. This design falls short on the design end as it presents yet another “band aid” solution. The Myers strap looks like a bandaid wrapped around the fingers of the golfer's glove hand making it highly impractical as well as embarrassing for use on the golf course.
Additionally, though there would be some benefit to securing the golf grip at the top of the swing, the aforementioned patent falls short in providing a technology that secures the golf club handle without additional pressure and possibly tension in the golfer's hands. It would be desirable to create a secure grip without requiring additional pressure from the hands, creating a tension-free swing and improved ball striking.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,122 to O'Toole discloses a golf swing training glove for teaching proper grip on the golf handle. The O'Toole golf glove is similar to that from U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,374 where the strap is fastened over and around the hand, leaving the golfer with “mummy hands.” The mummified hand is impractical for use on the golf course. This design would also be most likely relegated to backyard usage as a “training apparatus” despite the gripping benefits that the design provides.